Sports Day

When I think of “sports day”, I think of PE from back home. Things like relays, tug of war, dodge ball, waffle ball and maybe even a three legged race. When I found out that my school would be having a “sports day” where all of the teachers, first graders (freshmen) and second graders (sophomores) would be skipping classes for a day out on the “playground”, I figured these would be the types of games I would run into. I even got excited about the possibility of a game of soccer, baseball, volleyball or maybe basketball, but most definitely badminton, because that’s all they ever talk about here. But man was I wrong.

Yoomie (a nickname that means 'cute'), Mrs. Shin and Olivia (my handler)

The teachers let me know to wear “athletic clothes”. So I stroll in with my yoga pants and a Tshirt, only to find all the other female teachers in their normal, skinny teal jeans and cute tops. Go figure. Oh well, this was a day outside of the classroom, I was pumped. But the students definitely brought it. All of the girls classes had matching outfits (boys will be boys). They were lined up around the edge of the field with tents and chairs for each class. They had clappers, posters and full blown cheers. Awesomeness.

The day started with all of the students bringing carnations to the teachers because it was also “Teacher’s Day”. So cute.  After that, the fun began.

I wasn’t disappointed. I definitely got to witness a fair share of awesome PE-style games, just not the games I was used to. Yes, there were races and relays. My favorite was when 2-1 (second grade, class 1, boys) took their sweet time and let the student that is in a motorized wheelchair finish the last leg of the race, and the entire class joined him, carried a flag proudly, and just before the finish line, he stopped, turned the wheelchair around and finished going backwards. What an awesome morale.

There was also tug of war. But this was tug of war on steroids. There was not one, but THREE ropes. Two teams lined up at either end of the field then had to race to the three ropes. I’m not exactly clear on the rules, but you needed to have 2 ropes on your side to win. So if one rope was “lost” students would abandon the rope and then move to another rope in hope of winning it. It was craziness. I still don’t know how you know when to abandon your rope and how to choose which other rope to go to.

Then there was this game where the entire class would line up, 2 by 2, and two students had a rope in the front. They would drag the rope under the line of students while they had to jump over the rope, then the students with the rope had to round a cone at the other end of the field, then run back to the front, running while the rope was passing over the lined up students’ heads. Then they would pass the rope to the next pair of students and they had to repeat the process  until all pairs of students had been the one running with the rope. It might not sound that difficult, but this was just plain dangerous. I saw MANY students face-plant because they didn’t jump in time and their feet got caught in the rope. And several students got clothes lined from the back by the rope because they stood up too fast. If I never have to see another student get nearly decapitated again I’ll be happy (but it was a little funny sometimes).

And instead of 3 legged races, they had 10 legged races where 5 students were tied together at their ankles. They had to race across the field, go around a cone, then come back to the start, where they passed the relay stick off to the second half of the team. It was so cute to see some teams just try to run their hearts out (and promptly fall all over one another), while others had it together and were using rhythm and chants to keep pace.

Just before they all went tumbling to the ground

They also did jump rope, individual and team. Individual is pretty self explanatory, but the team jump rope was on a whole different level. They would have 2 people turning the rope while the rest of the students had to take a running leap into the rope and then jump out. They had this DOWN! They would make a large circle around the rope and just continually jump in and out. Talent and patience I tell you.

Then came the one teachers’ event. We (and I say WE because yes, I had to compete) had a “toy shoe relay”. We had large, foam, flip flop looking things you had to stand on and ropes that you held onto to lift the shoe when you walked. My team let me go first (not sure if this was a good thing, so I wouldn’t over think it too much, or a bad thing because I really didn’t know if I was doing it correctly), but it ended up being good in the end. I kicked ass. I ended up with a large lead from the rest of the teams, though my team didn’t end up winning in the end. Too bad. It was still fun.

My principal dancing 

Teachers, Principal and Vice Principal danced... students were excited

“Sports day” ended up going above and beyond my expectations. And while most of my pictures are gone from the event (my external broke), the memories will always be there. I can’t wait until next year!!!